York's most haunted pubs: ghosts and pints

York has always worn its ghosts with pride, and nowhere is that more obvious than in its pubs. A good few of them lean on their hauntings as much as their beer, so if you are planning a night of it, it helps to know which ones are actually worth the trip.

The Golden Fleece on Pavement is the one most people start with. It is Grade II listed and claims to be the most haunted pub in the city, a title that landed it a spot on the television series Most Haunted. The building has been around since at least 1503, though it only became an inn in 1656 and was not officially licensed until 1668; the version standing now dates from around 1840. The back yard is Lady Peckett's Yard, named after Alice Peckett, wife of John Peckett, who was Lord Mayor of York around 1702. The pub also keeps a replica of the skull of Elizabeth Johnson, the last woman executed at York's Tyburn, who was hanged on 23 August 1800. The original was stolen on 1 January 2022 and returned later that month.

As for the ghosts, the most famous is Geoff the airman, a Canadian who died after falling from a window in 1945 and is said to appear on the third floor in his military uniform. He is joined by a Victorian boy in Catherine's Room, a Grumpy Man who sits at the bar and curses, and Roman soldiers seen marching in full armour in the cellar, which is said to have held the bodies of criminals condemned to the gallows. Guests have reported invisible cats walking across beds, cold breezes, scratches on their backs, curtains moving on their own, and water dripping that vanishes the moment you look at it. A man in a bowler hat has also been spotted at the bar.

The Black Swan Inn on Peasholme Green is older still, a timber-framed former merchant's house from the early 15th century, built for William Bowes, a merchant and Sheriff of York in 1417 who became Lord Mayor in 1428. Its ghosts are a regular cast: a gentleman in a bowler hat waiting impatiently at the bar; a beautiful young woman, a jilted bride, staring into the fire, with the legend that any man who looks into her face will die in ecstasy; a Victorian boy called Matthew, said to have been a pickpocket; a highwayman known as Jack, in riding boots and a long black cloak, who can be heard singing Irish folk songs in the kitchen; and a large black cat that confuses staff and customers. A pair of legs is often seen disappearing up the stairs to the landlord's flat, the chair by the fire is reputedly cursed, and a clay pipe found during restoration is kept in the main bar.

Beyond those two, Ye Olde Starre Inne on Stonegate is York's oldest licensed inn, with a cellar said to have served as a hospital and mortuary for Civil War soldiers, from which staff and customers report cries and lights switching on by themselves. The Windmill Inn on Blossom Street, a former coaching inn just outside Micklegate Bar, is said to be haunted by a girl killed by a cart in the 19th century, whom a chef has reported seeing several times. And The Hole in the Wall on High Petergate, by Bootham Bar and the Minster, tells of a dungeon found beneath it and footsteps heard from a bricked-up tunnel.

If you want to make a proper evening of it, York has three ghost tours to choose from before you settle into one of these pubs. York's Haunted Heart: Ghosts, Ghouls and Gallows is a two-hour, 1.75-mile small-group walk from Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate to the Golden Fleece, through the Shambles, Bedern and Lady Peckett's Yard, from £18. The York Dungeon runs ten live shows over 75 minutes from £23, and The Deathly Dark Tour is a 90-minute evening walk from £15.